"Happy Stabbing
"

Happily stabbing people at Adorn in Shrewsbury, UK. Able to carry out all basic piercings, most advanced and a small selection of genital piercings as well as microdermal anchors. Currently trying to fill in the gaps in my knowledge and learn other body modification techniques. A background in mechanical engineering means I'm always looking for a new way to do something and I have the tools to build what I want.

Diary

Another week has gone by already! They seem to be flying past at the moment.

Well the week was quiet, up to Thursday I had only had 1 nose piercing in so i was a little downhearted. The weather had been bad all week and its mid month so people that have as much free cash to spend on awesome adornments but it still gets to you. Then Friday afternoon happened.

The morning started off with the usual jewellery stock level checks and sterilising of equipment and about midday it started to get busy. 7 piercings later and its home time, the time just flew by! A nice mixture of noses, ear lobes and navels with a smiley piercing to finish off my week. Chelsea had had a similar week to me (we work alternate days so i can do my shop manager duties too) and her Saturday was fully booked before she even walked through the door. This is unusual for us as we like to be able to offer a walk in service but we just didn't have the space! This is good news for the shop and I hope it shows that our hard work and care is paying off. We like to give our customers the best possible customer service, piercing, jewellery quality and aftercare that we can all in a nice environment. Busy days make me feel like we must be doing something right. I'll try to post some pictures of some of last weeks piercings for you guys to take a look at.

In Nepal news it is now only 4 weeks until I fly! I can't wait! I had to order a new passport as mine didn't have the required 6 months until expiry on return. I was nervous about this not turning up in time as I sent the forms off and they came back saying my image had changed so much since my last passport (thanks body mods!) that they needed to get a countersignature to prove that its me. I got the countersignature and got the documents sent off and the passport arrived this morning! Stress over. I now have everything all fully booked, flights, hotels, jungle trek, passport, transfers etc so I'm all ready to go. I've been shopping for clothes for it too. I am going in the hottest time of the year and shorts are frowned upon in there culture so I have feeling I will be melting.

At some point this week I will be getting my other conch pierced with a matching piece of beautiful blue glass form Gorilla Glass and I will finally be balanced and symmetrical again! Just need to man up and get it done now!

Sorry I missed out last week. I normally write my weekly entry on a Monday but i was busy with shop stuff so missed my chance and before I knew it the whole week had gone by! So because of that I will write this entry in two parts. Part 1 for the week I missed and Part 2 for the week just gone by.

Part 1 - Missed Week

Well I was busy this week. Chelsea had family commitments on the weekend so I came in on the Saturday to cover for her. I had a great mix of piercings this week. With the rage running from noses, lips and lobes to navels, scaffolds and a couple of pretty unusual micro triple piercings. If you take a look in my photos you can see the triple forward helix and triple outer conch photos. I think the outer conch look great.

The big story of this week for me though happened on Wednesday. I got to carry out my first scarification! It was on Anna Garvey, my girlfriend, boss and partner in crime. The scar was of a heart shaped gem. Quite an ambitious first design but we broke it down into lines and just worked at it. Anna guided me with depth from her tattooing knowledge and i did my best to make my cuts smooth and in one piece. It has been healing fro just under 2 weeks now but she has been taking a picture everyday so i will make a time lapse video out of these and put this up once it has completely healed. We went through the procedure without any kind of anesthesia but being as a few people have now asked if they can have scars I may buy some in. I have been asked to scar a Penrose triangle and the elemental symbols too! I would like to try skin peeling but I think i'm going to need a bit more practice at just cutting first and getting to know the different scalpels and tools that are available to me. Anna took it a like a champ and sat so well for me. I can't thank her enough! I did upload a picture but it doesn't seem to have made it through the admin checks.

Money is still going in towards my anodiser. I am about halfway there now.

Part 2 - Last Week

So the last week that went by was really quiet for me for piercings. I only did 2 all week! I did however have Tuesday off in return for the Saturday I covered (I spent all day rock climbing up at Nesscliffe and it was great!) and Thursday I worked from home to try and get the shops books in order and fully integrated into the new system that we are currently operating, I have now nearly got everything in and linked together correctly so that I am nearly at a stage of just inputting data as we get different receipts and invoices. It has taken a long time to get to this stage.

I also managed to get a free apple mac for the shop to load Photoshop on for the tattoo artists. I am quite a techno geek so i have managed to get it linked into the network but as I have never really encountered Mac's this is as far as I can get. If any out there could help me give a factory restore, connect to our network and printer and help me to install a copy of Photoshop that would be GREATLY appreciated.

In preparation of some new projects I am planning i have ordered some new goodies this week to. I have done a Gorilla Glass order to try and get a few new glass initial piercings down. I have also added in two cobalt blue nose screws for myself. This will then match the blue conch pins i currently have in and the cobalt blue 1 1/16" glass tunnels I have from Robot from when Anna was travelling over there. I also ordered a few glass things for friends and regular customers to try and get glass jewellery seen by potential customers as glass doesn't seem to be used that much around here.

Well that's it really. It's Monday now, another week is starting and I am on my own as Josh is away in Brighton with his lovely lady Lishy for their 1 year anniversary. Congratulations guys!

It's been an incredibly busy week. The week started off with a nice nape microdermal and then just got busier from there. I had several variations on single and double helix and forward helix piercings, a couple of nose piercings, a spiral helix piercing, a punch and tapered surface and finished the week with a nice vertical labret.

I've been really pleased with the variety that has come through the shop this week, the piercings listed are only a selection of the piercings that i did. Chelsea our other piercer has also had a busy week and a range or more 'intimate' piercings came her way. The spiral helix piercing that I had booked made it in with the jewellery here this time and it went great. Not the easiest jewellery to install but we got there in the end and the end result is great. I couldn't be happier!

I also got to carry out my first punch and taper surface piercing this week. It isn't the one i had planned for either which means i have another two coming in this weekend. This piercing went well if not the quickest as i didn't have the technique nailed in second nature but with practice i will get there. The actual piercing itself was a clavicle/collar bone piercing with ice blue anodised titanium discs fitted. The girl who came in for it sat like a trooper to! Sh is going to be coming back to get the other side done once she has healed this one in.

In shop news we have finished our Wednesday night yoga/Tai Chi Classes. This was a 6 week course that we got an instructor in to teach. We decided we had the space in the front of the shop for 10 people to do this and it brings a great mood and atmosphere to the shop. We are going to look at running some more in Summer and maybe using some of the beautiful outdoor space available to us in Shrewsbury.

Barcoding News! I have finally finished the main jewellery cabinet now and only have the standard piercing jewellery and window displays to finish now. Its nearly done and I am so pleased that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. It got a little bleak half way through but I'm glad that I have done it now.

Personal projects. I haven't had anything new this week although I am now thinking of getting my right conch pierced to match the gorilla glass I have in my left conch. I am also booked in on Wednesday to get some more work on the raven tattoos i have on my hips. I cant wait to get these finished as they are looking amazing. I'm not sure if i will necessarily post pictures of the finished pieces as the world might get to see more of me than i am comfortable with haha!

The advert for a new artist has been up and running for a week and I am receiving a good few applicants so the sift will be beginning shortly and then its onto seeing who will come and guest spot with us for a trial!

Personal news this week mostly consists of a hearty congratulations to my friend Martyn 'Pikey' Price as we went out for his stag do on Friday and he is soon to be married. Other personal news is that I have sent my passport of for renewal in preparation for Nepal! I am beyond excited now and every time i get the chance i just Google for images of all the things i am going to see.

Well I was busy busy busy last week! It was school holidays for kids and college students here so i anticipated this by running at half term 10% off with student ID deal. I think i only had 3 people take me up on this offer but i was rushed off my feet with adults getting pierced last week. A healthy mix of ear cartilage, a LOT of lobes, navel and a couple of septum's and a nape micro dermal. Unfortunately my punch and taper anti eyebrows couldn't make it into the shop due to a blown head gasket on their car but they have re-booked for a couple of weeks time. The spiral piercing will be coming in this week to.

This weeks shop tasks will mostly consist of continuing the bar coding (I'm finally getting somewhere with it now), advertising for a new artist here at the shop (advert is here if you're interested) and keeping this ticking over here. I'm still saving up for my anodizer so it will be a while until i am able to offer that service.

This weeks research has mostly been based around ear scalpelling and better ear lobe stretching methods. I'm getting tired of kids coming into he shop with ears that are huge and blown out. I want to try and encourage people to stretch carefully, and within their means (ie job prospects etc). I have been reading up on scalpelling as this would help the people achieve those larger sizes without pushing their ears to far and also because i want to get more into ear lobe repairs etc. I have also been looking at snap plugs (link here) as a method of stretching that i could stock in the shop. Trying to spread some ear love! As well as encouraging people to stretch with increased care i am also trying to educate people about material quality. I used to have a job in the field of metallurgy so for this reason i wont use anything that isn't titanium for initial piercings, unfortunately people change this jewellery out for cheap products that then cause more damage than good. I'm an advocate of wooden plugs for stretched lobes for everyday wear and high grade metals, stoned and horn for special occasions. The reason i recommend wood is due to its ability to absorb the bodies natural oils. I found this reduces scum build up and helps keep the ear lobe from drying out as the oils can reabsorb, I also recommend them in winter so prevent blood flow issues due to the cold weather.

In exciting news for me and Anna we have booked our hotel for Nepal now. This was the final piece in the puzzle. I can't wait to get over there and meet all the tattoo artists and hopefully the suspension team! Being as that is now paid off we have also started the booking process for heading over to lowlands festival in Holland! As well as this the planning for this years tattoo conventions is well under way. We're trying to not cram too many things close to each other but we should be getting out to a few. Keep an eye out on here as I confirm which events we will be attending and if you are heading down feel free to drop me a line so we can meet for a coffee or a cocktail depending on the time of day!

So another week has passed by and there's plenty of happy customers been through the shop.

Josh and Anna have both been tattooing away producing some awesome pieces this week and me and Chelsea (the other piercer at Adorn) have been stabbing away. Another week of fiddly ear piercings. Had a lot of traguses, a rook and a lot of navel piercings. This weeks unusual piercings were a triple micro labret outer conch project in the shape of a triangle. It came out awesomely and the picture is here http://www.bme.com/iam/media/aidenj87/photo/3420402?ref_gallery=fresh_piercings Th other unusual piercing this week was Anna's other 2.4mm tragus. This one thankfully didn't bleed anywhere near as the other side so it went a lot smoother.

The spiral triple helix has now re-booked with me as the jewellery has finally arrived and the anti eyebrows are in on Saturday so some fun little projects coming up.

In shop news i have installed a bar code scanner this week. The aim of this is to get better control of our stock and to make checking out quicker and easier for both staff and customers. It's been fun getting it installed but the mammoth task of barcoding every item of jewellery in the shop as well as creating a barcode for all of the different services we offer is taking so long! I should have that finished and up and running this week so not much left to do. I feel it makes the shop look very professional as it sits alongside our booking system and bank card reader.

The log burner is now back in place and my house is once again toasty. my dogs are pleased with this and keep going to sleep underneath the burner.

Planning for Nepal is now well underway. We have the Tattoo convention to work at and a jungle trek to meet tattooed tribes planned so far but we are looking for some nice relaxing days to fill in the gaps. I think a few temple visits and finding somewhere to view Mount Everest will be top of the list.

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